Super Mario Galaxy Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 7th January 2008

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Mario returns to for his first outing on the Wii.

Super Mario Galaxy Details:

	Adventure
	Nintendo Wii
	Nintendo
	Nintendo

Out Now

N/A

Mario’s first appearance was in 1981 in the arcade game, Donkey Kong, (although he was actually known as Jump Man back then!) where he was saving a damsel in distress. Although the concept may not have changed through the years, our courageous plumber is still rescuing his beloved; the Mario series has gone from strength to strength. Super Mario 64 on the N64 was hailed as one of the greatest games of its time, and the follow-up Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube proved that this was not a fluke, although some people argued that it wasn’t a ‘real’ Mario game.

Mario games have always set the standard for others to follow, and so Nintendo fans everywhere have been waiting for this game since the Wii’s release and hoped that it would continue the trend of platforming perfection. This game is not only a ‘real’ Mario game, it is also a real treat to play, and will not disappoint any Mario or Nintendo fans.

The game starts off with the celebration of the Star Festival in the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom, but this joyous occasion is soon disrupted by Mario’s arch nemesis, Bowser, King of the Koopa’s! Bowser’s armada of airships attacks the Mushroom Kingdom and he lifts Peach’s castle, with Peach inside and Mario on the steps outside into outer space. Mario manages to keep his balance as the castle is pulled further and further away from the planet from which they came, until one of Bowser’s henchmen manages to blow him off into the open space. Our hero awakens on a strange planet and meets the mysterious Rosalina, who gives Mario his own Luma. The Luma’s are small star creatures that eat Star Bits and when they grow up they turn into comets, planets and even galaxies. Mario’s Luma gives him the power to fly through space and to unleash his Spin attack, which is activated by flicking the Wii remote.

Rosalina tells Mario that Bowser has taken his special one to the centre of the universe and he has stolen the Grand Stars that power her spaceship the Comet Observatory, if he wants to save his special one he must collect these Grand Stars and restore power to her spaceship. The Comet Observatory acts as the central hub of the game, where you unlock “Domes”; in each dome you will discover different “galaxies” which are the levels where you collect normal stars. As you collect more stars, more galaxies are unlocked until you reach the enemy base for that dome; this is essentially a boss level where you take on Bowser or one of his cronies to earn a Grand Star. Grand Stars give the spaceship more power and allows a new dome to be activated and so more galaxies to complete.

With a total of 120 stars to collect (and a bonus mode once you complete the game) the game will keep you going for a while although I found it a bit easy to begin with but gets gradually harder, it is still a joy to play and the difficulty is probably at the right level for younger players and newcomers to the Mario genre.

The levels and challenges are nicely varied; usually it’s about attacking enemies with your Spin attack, which is easily performed by flicking the remote. You can also collect Star Bits using the remote as a pointer, simply direct the pointer towards the shiny crystal-like objects and they zoom towards you! Collecting multiples of 50 Star Bits on a level earns you an extra life and they are also used to find secret stars and secret galaxies in the Observatory.

The controls are easy to pick up and before you know it you’ll be spinning, jumping and somersaulting around with the greatest of ease. It may not use the Wii remote to its fullest except in a few of the bonus galaxies, but this is definitely not a bad thing, the control system feels natural and works very well.

There are some levels that break the trend of platforming and these are the better levels. One such level has you surfing on a manta ray around a hovering circuit of water by tilting the remote to turn corners!

This brings us nicely onto the best aspect of SMG, it’s just crazy, wacky and completely random, and you will be playing it with a smile constantly on your face! Some of the levels have places where gravity changes direction, others have planets with their own gravitational pull, so long jumping form one to another allows you to be drawn towards your target, you can also walk on the underside of most of the platforms. Mario’s power-ups are also a mix of new and old, the faithful fire flower returns that allows Mario to throw fireballs for a limited time, whereas Bee Mario is completely new and allows Mario to fly temporarily. These transformations are usually needed to reach the next planet or to solve a puzzle, but it breaks up the usual platforming pattern.

Graphically the game is fantastically colourful and a welcome change! Super Mario Galaxy isn’t afraid to use the full pallet of colours, which is great to see in a gaming industry that seems to be fascinated by realistic graphics. It’s a joy to watch in action, it is smooth, fluidic and polished to perfection.

The music is pretty good and will be familiar to veterans of the Mario cannon with some noticeable remixes of classic tunes from the NES/SNES games. The sounds are spot-on, from Mario’s “yahoo” right down to the satisfying ‘clink’ of collecting a coin. There is next to no speech in the game except for the occasional word or two, it’s left to on screen text, but this takes nothing away from this fabulous game.

This game will delight and impress die hard fans and newcomers alike and is quite possibly the best game on the Wii at the moment! To sum it up in one word: Fun with a capital “F”! Buy it now you won’t regret it!